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The Single UNIX &reg; Specification, Version 2<br>
Copyright &copy; 1997 The Open Group

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<h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1916">&nbsp;</a>NAME</h4><blockquote>
rmdir - remove directories
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1917">&nbsp;</a>SYNOPSIS</h4><blockquote>
<pre><code>

rmdir <b>[</b>-p<b>]</b><i> dir</i>...
</code>
</pre>
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1918">&nbsp;</a>DESCRIPTION</h4><blockquote>
The
<i>rmdir</i>
utility will remove the directory entry specified by each
<i>dir</i>
operand, which must refer to an empty directory.
<p>
Directories will be processed in the order specified.
If a directory and a subdirectory of that directory
are specified in a single invocation of the
<i>rmdir</i>
utility,
the subdirectory must be specified before the parent directory
so that the parent directory will be empty when the
<i>rmdir</i>
utility tries to remove it.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1919">&nbsp;</a>OPTIONS</h4><blockquote>
The
<i>rmdir</i>
utility supports the <b>XBD</b> specification, <a href="../xbd/utilconv.html#usg"><b>Utility Syntax Guidelines</b>&nbsp;</a> .
<p>
The following option is supported:
<dl compact>

<dt><b>-p</b>
<dd>Remove all directories in a pathname.
For each
<i>dir</i>
operand:
<ol>

<li>
The directory entry it names will be removed.

<li>
If the
<i>dir</i>
operand includes more than one pathname component,
effects equivalent to the following command will occur:
<code>
rmdir -p $(dirname <i>dir</i>)
</code>

</ol>

</dl>
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1920">&nbsp;</a>OPERANDS</h4><blockquote>
The following operand is supported:
<dl compact>

<dt><i>dir</i><dd>A pathname of an empty directory to be removed.

</dl>
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1921">&nbsp;</a>STDIN</h4><blockquote>
Not used.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1922">&nbsp;</a>INPUT FILES</h4><blockquote>
None.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1923">&nbsp;</a>ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES</h4><blockquote>
The following environment variables affect the execution of
<i>rmdir</i>:
<dl compact>

<dt><i>LANG</i><dd>Provide a default value for the internationalisation variables
that are unset or null.
If
<i>LANG</i>
is unset or null, the corresponding value from the
implementation-dependent default locale will be used.
If any of the internationalisation variables contains an invalid setting, the
utility will behave as if none of the variables had been defined.

<dt><i>LC_ALL</i><dd>
If set to a non-empty string value,
override the values of all the other internationalisation variables.

<dt><i>LC_CTYPE</i><dd>
Determine the
locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as
characters (for example, single- as opposed to multi-byte characters
in arguments).

<dt><i>LC_MESSAGES</i><dd>
Determine the locale that should be used to affect
the format and contents of diagnostic
messages written to standard error.

<dt><i>NLSPATH</i><dd>
Determine the location of message catalogues
for the processing of
<i>LC_MESSAGES .
</i>
</dl>
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1924">&nbsp;</a>ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS</h4><blockquote>
Default.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1925">&nbsp;</a>STDOUT</h4><blockquote>
Not used.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1926">&nbsp;</a>STDERR</h4><blockquote>
Used only for diagnostic messages.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1927">&nbsp;</a>OUTPUT FILES</h4><blockquote>
None.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1928">&nbsp;</a>EXTENDED DESCRIPTION</h4><blockquote>
None.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1929">&nbsp;</a>EXIT STATUS</h4><blockquote>
The following exit values are returned:
<dl compact>

<dt>0<dd>Each directory entry specified by a
<i>dir</i>
operand was removed successfully.

<dt>&gt;0<dd>An error occurred.

</dl>
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1930">&nbsp;</a>CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS</h4><blockquote>
Default.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1931">&nbsp;</a>APPLICATION USAGE</h4><blockquote>
The definition of an empty directory
is one that contains, at most,
directory entries for dot and dot-dot.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1932">&nbsp;</a>EXAMPLES</h4><blockquote>
If a directory
<b>a</b>
in the current directory is empty except it contains
a directory
<b>b</b>
and
<b>a/b</b>
is empty except it contains a directory
<b>c</b>:
<pre>
<code>
rmdir -p a/b/c
</code>
</pre>
will remove all three directories.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1933">&nbsp;</a>FUTURE DIRECTIONS</h4><blockquote>
None.
</blockquote><h4><a name = "tag_001_014_1934">&nbsp;</a>SEE ALSO</h4><blockquote>
<i><a href="rm.html">rm</a></i>,
the <b>XSH</b> specification description of
<i><a href="../xsh/remove.html">remove()</a></i>,
<i><a href="../xsh/rmdir.html">rmdir()</a></i>,
<i><a href="../xsh/unlink.html">unlink()</a></i>.
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UNIX &reg; is a registered Trademark of The Open Group.<br>
Copyright &copy; 1997 The Open Group
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